For river cruisers in Europe, this will be a year for boning up on stories about Viking gods, goddesses, and heroes.

Viking River Cruises, largest of the many companies that operate long and low vessels on the busy rivers of Europe, is introducing six identical boats this year, all named for famed Vikings.

The Odin was floated out on March 21

You might recall that that Odin is the god of wisdom, Freya the goddess of love and fertility, Njord the god of wind, Aegir the god of the sea, Idin the goddess of youth and rejuvenation, Embla the mother of the human race.

Vikings Odin (pictured in Kinderdijk, The Netherlands) and Idin floated out of Amsterdam this weekend on their inaugural voyages.

The new 190-passenger vessels, longer than a U.S. football field, flaunt an innovative modern design that includes a large indoor/outdoor café at the bow, heated bathroom floors and sophisticated big screen TVs, 39 cabins with private outdoor balconies, and nine suites – real suites with separate rooms.

The new indoor/outdoor cafe in the bow

In the old world of Europe’s shallow rivers and canals, where new boats may not be wider, higher or lower than the existing ones because of bridges and locks of immovable cement walls, designers managed to introduce outdoor sitting balconies by offsetting center hallways and turning some of the cabins sideways.

The picture below is of the side of Viking Odin with suites on the top cabin deck. You can see two outside sitting balconies, which are from different suites. Each suite has an outside balcony of about three feet wide (room enough for two chairs and cocktail table) and, also facing the outside, a French balcony for its bedroom. The windows on the deck below are from cabins with a French balcony.

The six riverboats – all of which will be floating in Europe by June – were expected to be a big hit in North America, where Viking River Cruises draws 85 percent of its passengers.

According to the cruise line, the six new boats are 88 percent sold out for 2012. So, already it’s time to think about Vikings for 2013.

New suites on the upper cabin deck

Godmothers to the Viking gods

Vikings Odin and Idin were christened last week, along with Freya and Njord, which remained in the Neptun shipyard undergoing finishing touches in Rostock, Germany. The river cruise line said the occasion was the first in which four vessels were christened at the same time, though the record claim was tarnished slightly by the two missing vessels, visible to the crowd only by satellite television. Most companies wait until their ships are complete for passengers before officially naming them. Freya and Njord will be ready for the rivers in April, the company said. Vessels Aegir and Embla are to join the fleet in June.

All four godmothers to the first four boats, however, were on hand in Amsterdam for the ceremony on Wednesday, March 21, despite the two missing hulls for the traditional splash of champagne.

The godmothers included Rebecca Eaton, executive producer of the PBS Masterpiece series with the hit show “Downton Abbey;” Joanna Lumley, an actress known for her role as Patsy Stone on “Absolutely Fabulous” on British television; Harvard physicist Dr. Lisa Randall, author of “Knocking on Heaven’s Door: How Physics and Scientific Thinking Illuminate the Universe and the Modern World,” and Gail Wiswedel, of Saugatuck, Mich., reported to be Viking’s most traveled passenger with 11 river cruises.

An innovative herb garden on board

The new vessels will sail this year on cruises of 8-15 days. They are 443 feet long, with three cabin decks and an open deck on top, a restaurant that can accommodate all passengers at dinner, and a lounge that opens to the indoor/outdoor café at the bow.

An herb garden separates the mini-golf and shuffleboard on the top deck.

Viking River Cruises has announced six more river vessels for 2013 and has an option to build six more for 2014. For additional information, contact Viking River Cruises at (877) 668 4546.

More Viking gods to consider:

Viking River Cruises, which was founded in Russia, has renamed its four vessels on Russian rivers in honor of the Rurikid Dynasty, begun by Viking leaders and in charge of Russia for 700 years. Vikings Rurik, his brother Truvor, son Ingvar, and hero Helgi each have a Russian story to tell.

Photos by David Molyneaux

Antarctica remains elusive for me as a travel destination, but I’m getting closer.

On my Celebrity Century cruise in Australia and New Zealand – from Sydney to Auckland with stops on the way – the ship rounded the bottom of New Zealand, East Southeast of Stewart Island.

Our southern-most point was at the geographic coordinates reading of 47.2 degrees latitude, 169 degrees longitude.

I know this because I asked the Century’s navigator, Georgios Bourboutzoglou.

I told him that was the farthest south on Earth I had ever been.

“Me, too,” said Bourboutzoglou, who is from Athens, Greece.

On any more southern route, you’re probably on a course for Antarctica. Another time, I hope.

If you want to see where we were cruising, click here to see the map and enlarge until you can see Stewart Island, which is the island at the bottom of New Zealand. That white icy mass below is Antarctica. From Stewart Island, Celebrity Century sailed north, along the eastern coast of New Zealand, stopping at half a dozen ports, including Dunedin, Wellington, and Napier.

After two days and three nights at sea from Tasmania on the southern tip of Australia, Celebrity Century plunged into Milford Sound at sunrise.

You would not want to sleep-in on the day that your cruise ship slips through the three sounds on New Zealand’s southwest coast, not if you want to see Milford, anyway.

Our tour from the sea to the end of the Milford fjord was only two hours, so we were back out to sea in plenty of time for a full breakfast.

The fjord is deep and wide enough for a big cruise ship to follow its twists into the mountains to the end, then turn around so passengers on both sides of the ship can marvel at mountain peaks and waterfalls.

The irony is that cruise passengers are the only quick visitors to Milford Sound, which is a four-day, hut-to-hut trek along the 33-mile Milford Track, or a serious drive from Queenstown, New Zealand.

Celebrity Century followed Milford with cruises later that morning through Doubtful and Dusky Sounds. Passengers said the New Zealand sounds reminded them of Alaska fjords but without as much wildlife, either land or sea creatures. The scenery is similar, steep mountains of rock on either side of the water, some peaks capped with snow.

Milford is the tightest, then Doubtful and Dusky, which is the longest in Fiordland National Park.

One historical note to consider: Today’s cruise ship passengers see the New Zealand fjords much the same way they looked to Captain James Cook during his discoveries on HMB Endeavor in 1769-1770.

On the island of Tasmania, between the mainland of Australia and the ice of Antarctica, I did not encounter a single snarling Tasmanian Devil. But I did crash into the Tassie sense of humor.

Humor is a useful attribute for residents of an island best known for its feisty, carnivorous marsupial and a resident history as a repository for criminals in dire need of rehabilitation.

“We’re all POMEs here,” said a volunteer travel guide with dramatic flair as passengers streamed off a cruise ship, the Celebrity Century, and boarded shuttle buses for a day’s stay in Hobart, Tasmania’s primary city.

“That’s P-O-M-E,” he said. “Prisoners of Mother England. But you don’t need to worry. The pickpockets have been retrained. Now we fleece the tourists.”

Devils need road protection

The only attempted fleecing I noticed was the $30 fee that a country store wanted for the opportunity to see baby Tasmanian Devils.

I passed, so the only animal picture I have is of a sign warning drivers that Tasmanian Devils, one of the most territorial and aggressive animals in the world, might be attempting to cross the road. The sign is meant to protect the devils, not the drivers. The Devils are an endangered species.

There’s a message here. Despite the warning signs, highways in Tasmania have more than their share of road kill, including the carcasses of Tasmanian devils that snarl no longer. Go figure.

Grinding rogues into honest men

My highway route was the Convicts Trail, a drive of about two hours from the cruise ship dock in Hobart in a rental car from Thrifty at a reasonable $56 for the day (no fleecing there, but beware of the need to drive on your left, ala England, native home of the aforementioned convicts). The car was booked ahead on line by a colleague before we left the U.S.

The end of the Convicts Trail is Port Arthur, where England sent criminals during the 1800s “to grind rogues into honest men.” Says the Port Arthur guide: Remote, harsh, with no chance of escape, this was a perfect destination for hardened, repeat offenders.

Today, the ancestors of grist and millers of men live side by side on this island.

Ruins of the prison make up the Port Arthur Historic Site, which guides say is a task of several hours. Without several hours to spare, I didn’t poke around the prison, pictured at right, but I did notice that the prisoners used to have a nice view of the ocean.

Before heading back to Hobart, a colleague and I Iunched in the town of Doo, near Eaglehawk Neck, where prison guards once watched for escaping convicts, which apparently was easy duty.

We consumed fish and chips (fries) and a pot pie made of scallops flavored with curry. The takeout was served from a kitchen built into a house trailer set up to catch the tourists parked to peek at a blowhole along the Convicts Trail.

What might have been the scene for an eating disaster in many parts of the world worked satisfactorily here, perhaps because the parking lot was less than 100 yards from the sea and a fishing dock. The fish tasted fresh, and at $16 for two was priced right as well.

Looking for Dudley Doo-wrong

Houses near the blowhole have assumed punny identities with the community named Doo. Each house has its own cutesy Doo name on a signpost, such as Dr. Doolittle and Dooitright and Doocomein.

So far, no one in the area has initiated a counter-culture of Don’t. As I would prefer some privacy, I was thinking of a home, appropriate also to the days of the convicts, called Don’teventry.

Yes, in the picture, the figures that look like ants at the top of Sydney Harbor Bridge, on either side of the flag to the left, are people.

They are waving goodbye to my ship, the Celebrity Century, as it begins a 12-night cruise from Sydney, Australia, to Tasmania and New Zealand.

More about the Celebrity Century and the cruise in blogs to follow. (And no, the Century is not the sailing ship under the bridge.)

The bridge climb is one of the most popular diversions for young travelers to Sydney.

For two hours or more, visitors trudge up one of longest single-span steel arch bridges in the world, fourth behind the Lupu in Shanghai, the New River Gorge in West Virginia and Bayonne in New York.

The top of the arch in Sydney is 440 feet high, reachable as part of a guided tour starting at about $200. The climb seems safe enough, as you are issued outer clothing, headwear and gloves, and breath-tested (reading under 0.05% alcohol) just to make sure you are in your right mind.

Bridge climbers are attached to a static line. They walk along flat mesh catwalks, up four flights of stairs plus 465 steps on the arches, ducking under and squeezing through girders – or so say the climbing instructions. Guides provide encouragement for climbers to overcome fears about heights.

Still, I declined the climb, citing my fear of falling from any ladder that’s more than a few steps above the ground.

I was contented to watch, as my ship passed by the famed Sydney Opera House and headed out to sea.

The Opera House tour, BTW, was more my style. Before the cruise, I joined a small group for the one-hour Essential Tour ($35) that included a witty guide and an audio headset so she didn’t need to shout as she explained the design and construction of one of the world’s most amazing buildings. It’s an architectural masterpiece that hosts opera, ballet, symphony and dramatic performances.

Travelers who loved vacationing on the Carnival Paradise, which once was a cruise ship entirely cigarette smoke free among passengers and crew, have reason to cheer. As 2011 draws toward a close, second-hand smoke at sea is dissipating.

With this year’s trend toward prohibiting smoking in cabins and in most gathering spots aboard ships, cruise lines slowly are catching up to the lifestyles of their passengers at home, where work places, public areas, restaurants, and bars are smoke free over much of North America.

As the number of smokers at sea decreases — Carnival says that only 5 percent of its passengers say they want to smoke in

This outdoor section on the new Oceania Marina is one of only two places on the 1,250-passenger ship where smoking is allowed

their cabins – places to puff diminish.

The Paradise, which debuted in 1998, was ahead of its time. I remember the delights of the piano bar and dancing in the disco without the haze of second-hand smoke attacking my eyes, nasal passages and throat. The Paradise remained smoke free for six years, taking a financial hit because fares and onboard revenue from bars and the casino were lower than on other Carnival ships; apparently non-smokers, a decade ago, also drank less alcohol and gambled less frequently.

New smoking rules, this year and next

While no cruise line, other than the defunct Renaissance brand, has yet attempted to be entirely smoke-free, the trend is clear, and new rules are taking effect this year and next.

The biggest changes prohibit smoking in cabins. Joining Royal Caribbean, Celebrity, Azamara, Disney, Regent Seven Seas, Oceania, P & O, and SeaDream are Carnival (starting Dec. 1), Norwegian (Jan. 1), Holland America (Jan. 15), and Princess (Jan. 15). One the biggest complaints from non-smoking passengers is second-hand smoke in lounges and the smelly results of smoking by previous occupants of their cabins.

Many of these ships still allow smoking on deck on one side of the ship, as well as on private balconies adjoining many outside cabins. The former offers the same issues as restaurants with smoking sections, depending on how close you sit to that section, and the latter is a problem if your balcony is downwind of a smoker (which is why serious non-smokers on these ships will want to book a balcony cabin toward the front. Smoke wafts with the wind. And if the ship is moving while your balcony door is open, cigarette smoke from an upwind neighbor will be sucked into your cabin).

Cruise lines that prohibit smoking on these private cabin balconies are few, among them Celebrity, Azamara, Regent Seven Seas, Oceania, and, starting Jan 15, Princess. On two other cruise lines, Crystal and Silversea, you may not smoke on the balcony, but you may smoke in the cabin.

Tip-toeing into a ban on lounge smoking

Passengers who care about second-hand smoke also may want to keep in mind that most cruise lines still are tip-toeing into the idea of smoke-free bars, lounges, and casinos, apparently fearing they would lose onboard revenue.

Smoking is banned in dining rooms on all ships. The rules in other public areas and lounges vary by cruise line:

Carnival, for instance, now bans smoking in most public areas of its 23 ships, including its popular piano bars, though it allows cigarettes in the dance clubs, a portion of the casino and casino bar, a few outside deck areas and in the jazz clubs on 13 ships. Royal Caribbean chooses one public room as non-smoking on each ship. Celebrity does not allow smoking in its casinos. Norwegian allows smoking inside the ship only in the casino and cigar bar. Disney prohibits smoking in all indoor areas.

Newer ships, particularly the smaller ones, are leading the smoke-freer way, perhaps none so blatantly as the 1,250-passenger Oceania Marina, which debuted earlier this year. Smokers are confined to two relatively small areas, a glassed room inside near the bow and a corner of the outside pool deck. I asked an executive with Oceania if the cruise line’s message was that heavy smokers should choose a different ship. “Yes,” he said, without hesitation.

Strict rules from Oceania

Oceania leads also in its penalties for breaking the smoking rules aboard ship:

“Guests choosing to disregard the policy may be subject to monetary penalties – up to the fare paid for passage – that will be imposed to cover the costs associated with the required cleaning of stateroom furnishings, verandas and surrounding deck and accommodation areas. Guests are also kindly reminded that the Master of the vessel reserves the right to disembark any guests, without prior warning, for violation of this policy and said guest(s) shall be responsible for all fees levied by governmental or quasi-governmental authorities, all costs associated with repatriation and vessel’s loss of revenues from said forced disembarkation or costs associated with repairs or replacement of furnishings as a result of combustion of accommodation areas.” Other cruise lines also warn of stiff fees for cleaning a room of second-hand smoke.

If you are a heavy cigarette smoker, or reject the idea of being quarantined in increasingly smaller areas aboard ships, you may want to consider cruising on a European vessel, where smoking rules tend to be less strict. (Spain’s Pullmantur ships seem to offer the most opportunities for smoking, as there are few prohibitions.)

WELLINGTON, New Zealand

Rick Steves, one of America’s best-known travelers as a guidebook writer, blogger, twitterer and TV/radio host, is the Journalist of the Year in the 2011 Lowell Thomas Travel Journalism Competition.

Arthur Frommer’s Budget Travel magazine, the Los Angeles Times and the San Francisco Chronicle win top honors as the best travel publications in North America.

National Geographic Traveler wins five awards, including best travel website and best cultural tourism article. Outside magazine also wins five awards, including best adventure travel and best investigative stories.

This is the 27th year of the Lowell Thomas competition, overseen by the Society of American Travel Writers Foundation. The awards, recognized as the most prestigious in travel journalism, were announced at the annual conference of the Society of American Travel Writers (SATW), the premier professional organization of travel journalists and communicators.

The competition, for work from spring 2010 to spring 2011, drew more than 1,200 entries. Judges are the faculty at the University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill School of Journalism and Mass Communication.

Steves, Andrew McCarthy, Kate Siber

Rick Steves winner of the Journalist of the Year in the 2011 Lowell Thomas Travel Journalism Competition.

In naming Steves as Travel Journalist of the Year for his portfolio of work in the Grand Award category, the judges said: “The strength of Steves’ writing is his embrace of diversity, the range of topics and everyday candor.”

Steves sent the SATW conference in New Zealand a short video of thanks, noting that the award, which recognizes the hard work of North American travel writers, “has inspired me to continue in the work I believe all of us travel writers are cut out to do: to help our readers travel economically, efficiently, and in a way that opens them up to the wonders of our beautiful world.”

Steves also wins gold awards for his popular travel blog and for his travel broadcasts that appear on National Public Radio stations. Steves produces and distributes the program. Said the judges: “Steves’ behind-the-scenes videos and his political commentary give us a real sense of the people and places he experiences.”

Silver Grand Award winner is Andrew McCarthy, freelance writer, director and actor who won the gold in this category in 2010. McCarthy was in New Zealand to receive his award, and he spoke to the SATW conference about the positive impact that world travel has had on his life. Winning bronze is freelance writer Kate Siber.

Top magazines and newspapers

Other top magazine winners, for their publications, writers and photographers, are Afar, Southern Living, Westways, Islands, Playboy, The Rotarian, Via, Virtuoso Life, Canadian Geographic and Explore. Newspaper winners, for travel sections, articles and photography, include the Washington Post, Dallas Morning News, USA Today, Orange County Register, Portland Oregonian, Minneapolis Star Tribune, New York Times and the Record of Hackensack, NJ.

Best travel video winner is “Richard Bangs’ Adventures with Purpose/Hong Kong” as seen on American Public Television. Winner of the best consumer-oriented article is Dan Askin at CruiseCritic.com, who investigated the ads for a “free” cruise.

“I was struck by the quality of the entries,” said judge Val Lauder, who has taught feature writing at North Carolina for 31 years. She said the winning entry in the foreign travel article category — Peter Gwin’s story from Timbuktu in National Geographic – was “haunting.”

Top travel blogs, websites, books

Winning travel websites and their journalists include MatadorNetwork.com, BudgetTravel.com, MeetingsFocus.com, Gadling.com and Geoex.com. Top blogs include blog.bradajohnson.net by food and travel journalist Brad A. Johnson and Today in the Sky by Ben Mutzabaugh at USAToday.com.

Winning best travel book is “Bonobo Handshake: A Memoir of Love and Adventure in the Congo” by Vanessa Woods for Gotham Books. Gold winner for guidebook is “USA’s Best Trips: 99 Themed Itineraries Across America” from Lonely Planet, Sara Benson, coordinating author.

The awards are named for Lowell Thomas, acclaimed broadcast journalist, prolific author and world explorer during five decades in travel journalism. The competition is open to all North American journalists.

The SATW Foundation distributes nearly $20,000 to individual winners. “We want to thank this year’s underwriters — the Tourist Office for Flanders – Brussels and Travel Guard — for their support in recognizing and rewarding excellence in travel journalism,” said David Molyneaux, SATW Foundation president. “Their generosity helps make our prizes possible.”

Full list of Lowell Thomas winners

A list of the winners and the judges’ comments are available on the Foundation website, www.satwfoundation.org. For information about SATW, visit www.satw.org. The winners:

Category 1: Grand Award – Lowell Thomas Travel Journalist of the Year (24)

Gold: Rick Steves, author and TV/radio travel show host

Silver: Andrew McCarthy, freelance writer, actor and director

Bronze: Kate Siber, freelance writer

Category 2: Newspaper Travel Sections (15)

2A – Newspapers with 350,000 or more circulation

Gold: Los Angeles Times, Catharine Hamm, Travel Editor

Silver: The Dallas Morning News, Mary Ellen Botter, Travel Editor

Bronze: The Washington Post, Joe Yonan, Travel Editor

2B – Newspapers under 350,000 circulation

Gold: San Francisco Chronicle, Spud Hilton, Travel Editor

Silver: The Oregonian, Alex Pulaski, Travel Editor

Bronze: The Orange County Register (Santa Ana, CA), Gary Warner, Travel Editor

Category 3: Magazines (16)

3A – Travel Magazines

Gold: Arthur Frommer’s Budget Travel, Nina Willdorf, Editor-in-Chief

Silver: Afar, Greg Sullivan, Editorial Director

Bronze: National Geographic Traveler, Keith Bellows, Editor-in-Chief

3B – Travel Coverage in Other Magazines

Gold: Southern Living, Rachel Hardage, Executive Editor

Silver: Westways, Elizabeth Harryman, Travel Editor; John Lehrer, Editor-in-Chief

Bronze: Outside, Abraham Streep, Senior Editor

Category 4: U.S./Canada Travel Article (121)

Gold: John Flinn, “In Bay of Fundy, the Tides They Are a Changin’,” San Francisco Chronicle

Silver: Andrei Codrescu, “Ten Reasons to Visit New Orleans,” The Rotarian

Bronze: Wayne Curtis, “Main Street Takes a New Turn,” Via

Category 5: Foreign Travel Article (136)

Gold: Peter Gwin, “The Telltale Scribes of Timbuktu,” National Geographic Magazine

Silver: Steve Hendrix, “Austria’s Zillertal, an Alpine Valley of Great Skiing and Domestic Fun,”

The Washington Post

Bronze: Robert Draper, “The Call of Crete,” Virtuoso Life

Category 6: Photo Illustration of Travel (74)

Gold: Karla Gachet and Ivan Kashinsky, “The Road Less Traveled in South America,” Afar

Silver: Carolyn Drake, “The Spirit of Istanbul,” Afar

Bronze: Andy Isaacson, “Amazon Awakening,” The New York Times

Category 7: Special Package/Project (42)

Gold: Christopher Reynolds, “Southern California Close-ups,” Los Angeles Times print/online

Silver: Mark Boster, “Yosemite in Four Seasons,” Los Angeles Times print/online/other media

Bronze: Andrew Evans, “Bus2Antarctica,” National Geographic Traveler print/online/multimedia

Category 8: Cruise Travel (42)

Gold: Jill Schensul, “Back Channels of Eastern Europe,” The Record (Hackensack, NJ)

Silver: Jad Davenport, “Galapagos: Does Darwin’s Laboratory Still Hold a Lesson for the World?” Islands

Bronze: Craille Maguire Gillies, “In Praise of Slow,” Canadian Geographic

Category 9: Adventure Travel (65)

Gold: Rowan Jacobsen, “Heart of Dark Chocolate,” Outside

Silver: James R. Petersen, “The Long Road,” Playboy

Bronze: Michael McRae, “Rolling With Thunderbolt,” Outside

Category 10: Travel News/Investigative Reporting (22)

Gold: Joshua Hammer, “A Mountain of Trouble,” Outside

Silver: Gary Stoller, “Are These Batteries the Next Threat to Flier Safety?” USA Today

Bronze: Nancy Trejos and Andrea Sachs, “Amtrak Ridership Is Up, But Passengers Grouse

About Frequent Delays,” The Washington Post

Category 11: Service-Oriented Consumer Article (87)

Gold: Dan Askin, “The Free Cruise Offer: Scam or Legit?” Cruisecritic.com

Silver: Carol Pucci, “Travelers Lose as Airlines, Online Sites Square Off,” The Seattle Times

Bronze: Maria Lenhart, “Labor Pains: How Should Meeting Planners Deal With Hotel Union Disputes?” Meetingsfocus.com

Category 12: Environmental Tourism (44)

Gold: Melanie Radzicki McManus, “On the Backs of Giants,” Star Tribune (Minneapolis)

Silver: Kim Brown Seely, “Out of the Mist,” Virtuoso Life

Bronze: Gregory Dicum, “Peru’s Lovely Bones,” Afar

Category 13: Cultural Tourism (93)

Gold: Daisann McLane, “Ghosts of Hong Kong,” National Geographic Traveler

Silver: Edward Readicker-Henderson, “Acoustic Venice,” Islands

Bronze: Andy Isaacson, “Amazon Awakening,” The New York Times

Category 14: Personal Comment (114)

Gold: April Orcutt, “Loneliness the Same in Any Language,” San Francisco Chronicle

Silver: Gary Warner, “Stepping Behind Enemy Lines at a Tiny Japanese Bar,” The Orange County Register

(Santa Ana, CA)

Bronze: Don George, “Making Roof Tiles in Peru,” Reece: Literary Journeys for the Discerning Traveler

Category 15: Special-Purpose Travel (110)

Gold: Margo Pfeiff, “The Last Hike with Philip,” Explore magazine

Silver: Lawrence Osborne, “Drinking in Islamabad,” Playboy

Bronze: Brian Mockenhaupt, “The Other Side of the Mountain,” Outside

Category 16: Short Article on Travel (79)

Gold: Nathan Myers, “Little Nibblers,” Islands

Silver: Don George, “The Aerogramme and the Email,” Gadling.com

Bronze: Jeannie Ralston, “The Dinner Hour,” National Geographic Traveler

Category 17: Travel Book (18)

Gold: Vanessa Woods, “Bonobo Handshake: A Memoir of Love and Adventure in the Congo,” Gotham Books

Silver: Ian McNulty, “Louisiana Rambles: Exploring America’s Cajun and Creole Heartland,”

University Press of Mississippi

Bronze: Julian Smith, “Crossing the Heart of Africa: An Odyssey of Love and Adventure,”

HarperCollins Publishers

Category 18: Guidebook (36)

Gold: Sara Benson, coordinating author, and team, “USA’s Best Trips: 99 Themed Itineraries Across America,” Lonely Planet

Silver: J.W. Ocker, “The New England Grimpendium: A Guide to Macabre and Ghastly Sites,”

The Countryman Press

Bronze: Ayun Halliday, “Zinester’s Guide to NYC: The Last Wholly Analog Guide to NYC,”

Microcosm Publishing

Category 19: Online Travel Journalism Sites (13)

Gold: Traveler.NationalGeographic.com, National Geographic Traveler, Keith Bellows, Editor-in-Chief; Jerry Sealy, Art and Web Director; Kathie Gartrell, Managing Editor, e-Publishing

Silver: MatadorNetwork.com, Matador, David Miller, Senior Editor; Julie Schwietert Collazo, Managing Editor

Bronze: BudgetTravel.com, Arthur Frommer’s Budget Travel, Nina Willdorf, Editor-in-Chief; Lisa Schneider, General Manager digital; Laura Michonski, Deputy Editor online

Category 20: Travel Broadcast – Audio (15)

Gold: Rick Steves, “Travel with Rick Steves,” on radio

Silver: Willie Weir, Spain/Portugal Commentaries, “Weekday,” KUOW Public Radio, Seattle

Bronze: Joseph Rosendo, “Ireland – The West Is the Best,” Travelscope.net podcast and radio

Category 21: Travel Broadcast – Video (18)

Gold: Susan McNally, Richard Bangs, John Givens, “Richard Bangs’ Adventures With Purpose/Hong Kong: Quest for the Dragon,” American Public Television

Silver: Joseph Rosendo and Julie Rosendo, “Thailand – From Golden Triangle to White Sands,” KQED/PBS stations

Bronze: Rick Steves, “Rick Steves’ Europe – Season Six,” American Public Television

Category 22: Travel Blog (25)

Gold: Rick Steves, Blog Gone Europe, ricksteves.com/blog

Silver: Brad A. Johnson, food and travel journalist, Brad A. Johnson, the blog, blog.bradajohnson.net

Bronze: Ben Mutzabaugh, Today in the Sky, USAToday.com

I am in New Zealand a week already and still don’t know what day it is. Every day I need help to find the answer.

The local paper indicates today is Wednesday, but my computer, which is on New York time, says today is Tuesday, election day. If today is Wednesday, how come I don’t know who won the elections?

Worse is the realization that Tuesday, Nov. 2, is gone for good. I lost it, having never lived it. I boarded an Air New Zealand plane in Los Angeles on Nov. 1, got off in Auckland 13 hours later, and it was Nov. 3.

Don’t worry, they tell me, you’ll get the time back when you go home. No I won’t. I will board a plane in Auckland the evening of Dec. 13 and get off 12 hours later on the morning of Dec. 13 – a really long day of travel but hardly compensation for a day unlived in November.

Anyway, that’s how it works when you cross the International Dateline. The folks in New Zealand say the key is to pay no attention to what day it is in the U.S. Eastern time zone. When I do that, New York and my home in Ohio are 6 hours ahead of New Zealand.

I will keep that in mind tomorrow at the awards lunch for the Society of American Travel Writers, which is meeting in Wellington.

By the time I finish announcing the 2011 winners of the SATW Foundation’s Lowell Thomas Travel Journalism Competition, on Thursday, the U.S. East Coast will be finishing dinner. On Wednesday

Many of the newer condos and resorts lining the coast of Southwest Florida in and around Naples stand tall toward the beaches of the Gulf of Mexico.

That’s toward, but not on the beach, because man, these days, no longer is stupid enough to destroy the mangroves, nature’s best beachfront protectors from the furious storms of the Gulf. Instead, vacation buildings near water’s edge sit behind the mangroves, which are low twisting trees with amazing root structures that live comfortably in and around the seawater.

One of my favorite activities on a Southwest Florida vacation is to play in the waters between the mangroves and the mainland, kayaking, for instance, near Fort Myers on ancient Native American paths now mapped out as the Great Calusa Blueway.

Farther south, in the Naples area, where private development sometimes makes beach reaching difficult, you’ll find easy access to the sands and a nice boardwalk for strolling through the mangroves off U.S. 41, near the venerable Naples Grande resort, which is part of the Waldorf Astoria group.

Naples Grande is a beach resort, facing the Gulf, but the sand is .6 miles away, reached on a modern boardwalk that curves through the mangroves to a popular beach spot for watching the sunset. The resort would be happy to take your room reservation (and book kayaks and other beach gear).

If you want to look around first, you can get to the boardwalk and the beach by turning off U.S. 41 where Pine Ridge (from the east) meets Seagate (to the west). Turn west on Seagate, keep going straight until you see the parking lot for Clam Pass Public Beach. It will cost you $5 to park (Naples residents park for free).

Most resort guests and day visitors seem to choose to ride, above left, through the mangroves on a free tram that traverses the .6 mile boardwalk to the beach.

I recommend the walk, above right.

Benches await for bird gazing. I sat for a spell, watching a local kayaker to the south and a woman standing on a water board, paddling her way north through the protected waters.

October snow terrorized New England. Geese by the thousands are honking as they fly south, past my windows that face Lake Erie, which is turning a steely gray (see picture).

Early November may be a little early for human flight, but this snow bird from Ohio, having turned the heat up to “comfort zone” on the baseboard thermostat last night, is uncomfortable enough to visualize the benefits of the sands and palms of Florida.

My day dream takes me to winters past — in northern Ohio, that’s November deep into March — when I drove my trusty Toyota convertible south, waiting impatiently for the moment when the temperature rose to a point that I could tolerate an open roof.

The top would go down, the windows up, and the heater would blast on high. I would be rolling through the hills of West Virginia, Virginia or North Carolina, my jacket buttoned up, a muffler twisted around my neck. I would sing with the blasts from my radio, and other motorists probably thought I was nuts. Ok, a little. But I was starving for the wind and willing to risk the numbness that set in around my cheek bones. Sometimes the top went back up.

Red Door takes the kinks out

One trip, I drove two hard days to a hotel northwest of Miami, the Hyatt Regency Bonaventure in Westin, and gave myself up the next morning for a few hours at the Red Door Lifestyle Spa. It was a pleasurable way to begin a Florida stay, especially after two days of cramped muscles in the driver’s seat.

Two talented ladies took charge. Olga led me to an outdoor massage area, and a large wicker chair, which was draped with a white canopy. Olga placed a brass bowl at my feet. The bowl held about half a dozen round stones. Orange slices bobbed at the surface. She poured salt into the bowl, telling me that these were ingredients for relaxing.

As Olga did my feet, ankles and lower legs, massaging and smoothing skin with a lotion and gel, Rowena targeted my upper and lower back pressure points that she said were painful because of my long drive. Her massage, with citrus oils, was soothing, yet strong and forceful to relieve my Ohio knots.

Massaged and patted dry by mid-morning, I remember that I was smiling and ready for whatever Miami had to offer.